Botanists from Trinity College, Dublin may have discovered a new plant species in the rainforests of Guyana. One of the group'sleaders talks to Dick Ahlstrom about their expedition and findings
A rain forest fern found in South America may soon have a strong Dublin connection. If it is a new find, its Trinity College discoverers may enjoy the pleasure of naming it for posterity.
Plant specialists at Kew Gardens in London have already examined the fern and were unable to identify it, explained Dr Daniel Kelly of Trinity's department of botany. It has now been sent off to the US and hopefully confirmation will follow that it is a unique new plant species.
This was but one of a large number of important finds coming from a Trinity botanical expedition to Guyana last June. A group of 17 undergraduate botanists and seven postgraduates flew out to Georgetown, Guyana with Dr Kelly and three supporting staff, Prof David Jeffrey, Dr Deirdre Lynn and Dr Trevor Hodkinson.
They were headed for Iwokrama International Reserve, a research station located on the banks of the Essequibo River in part of the vast Amazonian rain forest region. The Trinity connection was strengthened by the involvement of Dr James Martin from the Guyana National Agriculture Research Institute, who left the college to work there under the Voluntary Service Overseas programme.
The trip was meant to introduce the students to tropical rainforest ecology and biodiversity, Kelly explains. In particular, the team wanted to catalogue the many epiphytes or "air plants" that grow far above the ground on branches and along trunks well up in the rainforest canopy.
The 15-day trip was "far too short", says Kelly. "It was wonderful. The rainforest was so undisturbed. It was pristine. I didn't think untouched places still existed."
The only way to pursue the research was to rope tree climbers into the canopy - no easy matter, given that the lowest limbs on many of the trees were 25 metres up. Continuing up to the top of the canopy pushed the climb up to 40 metres, says Kelly. "The climbing was hard work."
Once in place the climbers would lower the epiphytes carefully to the ground. Plants collected included arums, orchids, peperomias, ferns, mosses, liverworts and lichens; these were either prepared for transport back to Georgetown's National Herbarium or pressed for later study in Dublin.
Botanical expeditions are tightly controlled in order to protect Guyana's biodiversity, says Kelly. The Trinity team weren't allowed to bring back any living plants or seeds, only pressed plant material. "We weren't allowed to bring back any orchids alive or dead." Respect for the host country's indigenous plants is based on the idea that "our biodiversity is our wealth", he added.
Eleven flowering plant species and at least five ferns were discovered on the expedition that are "new records" for the area, he says. This means they were not previously known to exist in the Iwokrama Reserve as catalogued by the US Smithsonian Institute in Washington. "It is a working list, and these were species that were not on that list," he says. The newcomers can now be added, thanks to Irish efforts. "We are waiting with some eagerness on the fern," he adds.
Aside from the risk of working 40 metres up in the canopy, the team had to contend with heat, insects and snakes. "It wasn't intolerable. The bugs were amazingly diverse," he says adding, "We did get the odd tummy bug."
THEY also saw enough rainforest locals to make one feel like an extra in a David Attenborough wildlife film. The team saw monkeys chasing through the trees, tapirs sauntering along the roadway and jaguar dung "which was close enough" to the source of the waste, says Kelly. The dung contained monkey fur, so clearly the animal meant business.
Kelly is currently writing up a research paper on the findings, and two of the undergraduates have written up studies of the rainforest ferns and mosses as their final year projects. While it took the group almost a year to raise the money needed for the trip, it was so successful that Dr Kelly hopes similar expeditions will become a regular part of the botany curriculum.